EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN ARE STARVING BECAUSE THEIR FATHERS' ARE ENCOURAGED BY THE RABBIS NOT TO FIND JOBS! **MENU FOR CHEVRAH CHAZERIM PESACH ORGY**

MENU FOR PESACH AT THE ARIZONA CHEVRAH CHAZERIM FESTIVAL { FROM THEIR WEBSITE}:

Pesach Fresser aka Aguda Fresser said...

The Chevrah has assembled a team of Chefs, Pastry Chefs, Garde masters, Chocolate and Candy Specialists, Sommeliers and Culinary artists, who work year round to compile the most innovative, and luscious selection of food and beverages. From Fluffy Pancakes and Waffles for breakfast to Delectable Beef Wellington, Sweet Breads, Rack of Lamb and Roasted Duck for dinner. From Sushi rolled daily by our master in-house Sushi Chef to hand-crafted chocolate confections. We will answer the one question that will cross your mind as your eyes and stomach feast on delicious pasta, cakes and cookies – “Yes, it is kosher for Pesach,” (and meets the highest Non-Gebrokts standards of Kashrus). Our many daily meals, as well as our cocktail receptions, dessert extravaganzas and overflowing tea-rooms are prepared with the professional touch of a team of over 50 Specialty Chefs. Every meal is made on premises and will leave you every appetite satiated and every taste bud satisfied. Like our meals, our baked confections are also prepared on premises. Our bakery department in an entirely separate entity. Our baking is done under the guidance of Master Baker Moshe Birnbaum, and award winning Executive Pastry Chefs Angel Elon and Wendy Israel. The results are desserts and Viennese tables featuring cakes, pastries, delectable desserts, chocolate fountains and more. Over the years, the Chevrah has taken our guests eating experiences from “over the moon,” to “out of this world.” The pictures speak for themselves, but the taste is something you have to experience for yourself.CHOCOLATE SEDER PLATE WILL BE CONSUMED BY CHAIM KAMINETZKY IN ONE SITTING AFTER THE TAP DANCIN' PIMP SHOW. DON'T LEAVE THE SHOW EARLY - A SIGHT TO TREASURE FOR A LIFETIME! KEEP ALL YOUR KIDS UP - SHOW THEM WHAT PESACH WAS MEANT TO BE LIKE!

79 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Great comment from vosizneiasThe issue is very simple as long as the frum communities do not want to evolve the government authorities, and only listen to the so calling community leaders like rabbonom nothing will change, I am afraid.

The powers to be in the frum community are no different from the vatican. Only when people started outing the abuser publicly and to authorities did things change

remember when that issue hit the news and how the frum community was patting itself on the back"see what the Goyim are" Well I got news for you we are no different, not better, not worse we are a people like everybody else with the same problems.

And please do not use that lame argument, that it is the internet or TV. The internet is the medium that outed this crime. Before this people where to afraid to speak up. Or, the abused thought they where the only one, but thought the internet they found out others where abused too. This has been going on the abuse for a very long time but now it is becoming public.

This is perhaps the most bizarre story I've ever printed. There's even a connection, of sorts, to the Tendler family.

"Put stones on a hot plate . . . when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed." ------Rabbi Elior Chen Luke Ford breaks the story:

The mother of the daughter with the abused children is Naomi Klass Mauer, the daughter of the founding publisher of The Jewish Press — Rabbi Jacob Klass. She had the bitterest of divorces from her husband Yehuda Schwartz.

She was an agunah — a chained woman because he would not give her a divorce. She says he tried to extort vast amounts of money from her in exchange for a divorce.

She became a champion of the agunot in The Jewish Press, which features a seruv section for men who won’t listen to a Beit Din and won’t give their wives gets (Jewish divorces).

She married Dr. Mauer. They lived in Manhattan Beach (?). Their daughter went to YULA [Yeshiva University of Los Angeles high school] and then eventually married another YULA graduate from her class (what year?). They moved to Israel and became Modern Orthodox frum — West Bank Gush Kutif type frum (I am not saying they lived there but that type) and then they moved to the old city of Jerusalem and became Breslaver Hasidim. The couple became extreme frum (religious). They were introduced to some characters among the Breslavers who do drugs and get involved in their marriage. Some of these wild Breslavers move into the home.

The husband claims that once these guys moved in, he couldn’t see his children. So why didn’t he go see the police?

Anyone have any information on why these YULA grads would go on such a dark and deviant path?

How could their kids be so severely abused in the Old City of Jerusalem where everybody lives on top of each other?… I asked Luke if he was sure the woman is Rabbi Klass's granddaughter. He told me he confirmed this with two separate sources.

The Tendler connection?

Both Rabbi Aron and Rabbi Shalom Tendler have been on the faculty at YULA. Aron and Shalom were forced out, it is said, over allegations of sexual abuse.

Shalom Tendler was forced to "resign" not that long after, apparently for similar reasons.

Both, however, were active when Rabbi Klass's granddaughter was a student there.

Rabbi Metzger: I Call On Every Jew To Expel Abusive Rabbis, And Phony Educators From Our Community

Israel - Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger made an emotional call to rabbis nationwide on Tuesday, asking them to denounce violence against children in their sermons on Shabbat next week. Rabbi Metzger’s call came shortly after the exposure of several cases of severe child abuse, two of them among families from extremist Jewish sects.

Rabbi Metzger asked rabbis to talk about Jewish education, “which is based on true love for our children.” Parents must realize the importance of setting a personal example for their children, and of teaching each child pleasantly and calmly according to his or her own needs, he said.

He harshly criticized those involved in the child abuse cases revealed this month, particularly a violent rabbi who has since fled the country. Religious Jews and rabbis “must vomit these parents and rabbis out of the camp and do everything in our power to save the souls of these young children,” he said. [arutz7]----------------------------------Too little too late. "Do everything in our power", why doesn't he say it straight out, "GO TO THE POLICE"?? When will they have the guts to stand up and say that these predators have a din of rodef and that it's a chiyuv to turn them over to the authorities? It's very easy to say "throw them out". When they get "thrown out" of one community, they will move to another community and continue their physical abuse. These "leaders" just don't get it.

I will never forget an address by Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman at an Agudath Israel of America convention on the topic "Living a Life of Ruchnios amidst Gashmius." I had never before heard Rabbi Wachsman, and I practically jumped out of my seat when he thundered: This topic represents a fundamental mistake. There is no ruchnius amidst gashmius. To the extent that a person is living in the world of gashmius he is removed from ruchnius.

I was reminded of those words recently on a recent trip to Los Angeles, where I had a rare opportunity to speak with a rav whose wisdom has always impressed me. In the course of our conversation, he asked to me, "What would you say is the greatest threat to Yiddishkeit today?" I leaned forward eagerly, confident that he would mention one of my favorite subjects. But I must admit that his answer would not have been on my top ten-list.

"Pesach in hotels," turned out to be the winning answer. And my friend's central criticism was similar to that of Rabbi Wachsman: the Pesach hotel industry takes what should be one of the ultimate spiritual experiences of every Jew's life and encases it in a thick wrapper of materialism. Read the advertisements, he told me: "No gebrochts" right next to "24 hour tea bar;" "Daily daf hayomi" next to "Karate, go-carts, and jeeping for the kids."

"Olympic-size pool," "state-of-the-art-gym" (to work off all the extra pounds from the non-stop eating), "five-star accommodations" and famous singers are de rigueur for the full Pesach experience. And many throw in exotic locations – Hawaii, Cancun, the Bahamas, and an eighteen-hole golf course. What exercised my friend the most was the way that well-known rabbis, and even roshei yeshiva , are impressed into service in the advertisements, as if to put an imprimatur of ruchnius on the festivities.

My friend was raised in a particularly biting style of mussar, and he was just warming to his subject. He described the wailing when the dessert table runs out and the rush forward when the hapless waiter comes with refills and is almost trampled underfoot. Hotels have to put security guards around the 24-hour-tea rooms, lest some poor soul from the hotel down the road, where the dining room closes at 10:00 p.m., cannot make it to breakfast without a late snack.

"The chilul Hashem alone," he said, would be reason enough to close the Pesach extravaganzas. What does the staff at these hotels come to think of frum Jews? That they care only about eating and their holidays are nothing but eat fests? What impression does it make to see a group of pot-bellied men trying to eat their money's worth of food?

He related to me the story of one local frum boy who had accompanied his father to sell their chametz . They found the rav's house turned completely upside down for Pesach cleaning. On the way out, the boy asked his father why the rav's house was in such turmoil. He had never in his life seen, much less participated, in cleaning for Pesach.

That boy, my friend lamented, cannot possibly connect to the idea that Pesach cleaning parallels an inner process of removing the se'or she'b'isa – the physicality and inner materialism that holds us back in our performance of Hashem's commandments. His experience of Pesach has nothing to do with destroying the chametz either within or without.

When we gather in our homes around the festively decorated Pesach table, with the special dishes taken down just one week a year, and contemplate the freshly scrubbed homes over which we have labored so diligently, we link ourselves to all the generations of our ancestors. We may no longer exchange our old dirt floor for a new one every year at Pesach time, as they did in Europe. But if those ancestors could return to observe our preparations for Pesach, they would recognize their descendants and feel comfortable joining us for Seder. It more doubtful they would recognize us gathered around a hotel buffet table – even if we were wearing a shtreimel and bekeshe .

EVEN MY FRIEND recognizes that there are many perfectly legitimate reasons that families might go to hotels for Pesach. Not every set of grandparents can find floor sleeping space in their home for 50 or so descendants. Some older couples are simply not up to the physical exertion of Pesach cleaning, and the same may be true of young mothers just before or after childbirth. Other families may want to spend the holiday in Eretz Yisrael .

For such cases, there should be reasonably priced alternatives. (In Eretz Yisrael , many yeshivos turn their dormitories into Pesach hostels.) But it is not these families that are fueling a hundred million dollar industry, or who have transformed Pesach into a kosher version of spring break for many.

The issue of deluxe Pesach extravaganzas is, in truth, just one more aspect of an ongoing tension in modern Orthodox life. Rabbi Yehoshua Geldzhaler once described to me the pre-war Antwerp Jewry of his youth. During the Three Weeks, he said, you would not see an older Jew smile or engage in any frivolity. The Churban was present for them.

Jews who can really feel the destruction of the Bais HaMikdash are much rarer today. On the other hand, Rabbi Geldzhaler remembers, most of the younger generation in his day was in headlong flight from Yiddishkeit. Today, however, we have made it so much easier to be frum. Our kids can enjoy most of the pleasures of their secular counterparts, and no longer feel the need to rebel to such an extent. Religious observance may not be as internalized as formerly, but at least most of our youth remains within the fold.

It is the task of our rabbonim and roshei yeshiva to elevate our understanding of Pesach to the point that a week-long orgy of eating and fun-activities is self-understood to be a contradiction to the freedom from materialism that the Chag celebrates. But for those who have not yet reached that understanding, it's probably a good thing that the food is glatt.

But for those who have not yet reached that understanding, it's probably a good thing that the food is glatt.

Glatt gluttony! It should be noted that msny of these hotels serve Rubashkin, the mashgiach (somewhere) on premises is sleeping or reading a sefer, and the food is all bishulei akum. Otherwise this article was well written and long overdue. As I stated in an earlier post, we would never have been redeemed from Mitzrayim if the intention of all Jews was to spend Pesach in these hotels. Those that go to these hotels deserve the condemnation of "Illu Haya Sham, Lo Haya Nigal".

Anyone have any information on why these YULA grads would go on such a dark and deviant path? Because she was a victim of Shalom And Aron Tendler at YULA!

Here are excerpts from The Jerusalem Report:

According to the charge sheet, the woman’s relationship with her husband broke down last year, and she expressed her desire to divorce her husband, who subsequently left their Jerusalem home, leaving his eight children in the care of his wife and two men who were charged with educating her children.

The men, who allegedly carried out the abuse with the mother, received instruction from Chen on how to "fix" the children’s behavior, and "cleanse" them of their Satanic possession, the indictment says.

…During a search of Chen’s Betar Illit home, police found evidence that appears to link the rabbi to the abuse, including notebooks that document the violence, police said.

"Put stones on a [Shabbat] hot plate . . . when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed," the instructions read. Chen also instructs his followers how to tie up the children, and to prepare alcoholic drinks made of salt water and turpentine, which, he writes, should be given to the children in order to "vomit out the devil from themselves." Among the items police discovered at Chen’s home were hammers, iron bars, turpentine, sticks, and handcuffs.

…One of the woman’s eight children identified him as taking part in the abuse as well, the police representative testified in court. The charge sheet in the gruesome child abuse case recounts that the mother allegedly forced her children to eat feces, locked them in a suitcase for three days - letting them out only for brief periods of time - repeatedly beat, whipped, and shook them, burned their hands with a lighter and a heater, and gave them freezing showers.

The abusive mother (Tendlers' Victim) and "educators" are also suspected of pouring salt on the burn wounds of the child, stuffing his mouth with a skullcap and sealing his mouth with masking tape, and giving the children alcoholic drinks until they vomited.

The woman remains in police custody. Since her arrest last month, the mother was repeatedly shown pictures of her children’s injuries, but on most of the days she was in remand, she did not inquire about the children nor did she ask who was taking care of them, the police said.

Tell the fuc*in frauds who banned concerts and now allow them to be advertised in the Ham-odia (a generic of Immodium AD) to ban Pesach Getaway orgies. So long as they divert the attention of the masses from rabbinic shortcomings like molestation and theft, they got a good racket going.

The number one problem is not "Pesach getaways." It's dishonest rabbis who abuse, who cover up for other abusers, who demonize Modern Orthodoxy/YU/Young Israel/NCSY/anyone beside themselves, who hurl fire on anything not in their "hashkafic" purview, who train generations not to get a job or get an education, who have created poverty in Israel on a grand scale. The problem? Our own "leaders."

I am informed that one hundred million dollars PLUS, is spent on Pesach programs by Orthodox Jews.

That is really being m'kayim "zecher yitzias Mitzrayim".

People are definitely entitled to spend their money any way they choose,but that is NOT what Chazal had in mind. Who cares? What rabbonim will dare say anything?

Many rabbis are guests of the various hotels (gratis) and speak about golus Mitzrayim,and of course the golus that we are in presently. The "Holocaust"is a hot topic and a powerful tear-jerker between snacks.

A former chief rabbi of Israel is peddling his nonsense at one of the hotels.

He has his photo plastered on ads promoting a particular program all year around. This rabbi (I am choking on his title of rabbi) was found to be a woman molester. I met with one of his victims and a son of hers face to face. The rabbinical world is silent.

What about Chometz ossur B'mashahu? This issur is Min Hatorah....not some silly rabbinical injunction. Nobody cares.

G-D help the middle income Orthodox Jew who has an eight piece band at his daughter's wedding. The entire charedi rabbinate loses their collective minds.(They say nothing if it would be a wealthy person's daughter,maybe they will squeeze a hundred dollars out of him sometime in the future.)

There is NO HOTEL ON THIS PLANET that can possibly be kosher for Pesach,period!!!!!

Pathetic,pea-brained jewish women get to change their clothing and jewelry a few times a day. Worthless practices of Judaism that hold these fools together,Pesach vacations and bungalow colonies.

Truthfully,Orthodoxy is becoming nothing more than a circus that Barnum & Bailey would have certainly included in their animal show.

By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON — A top government health official said Wednesday that climate change is expected to have a significant impact on health in the next few decades, with certain regions of the country — and the elderly and children — most vulnerable to increased health problems.

VIN is reporting that he's by a friend in Quebec. I think this "friend" is a decoy.-----------------------------------Canada - VIN news has confirmed with law enforcement officials, that the INTERPOL organization has issued a "red notice" nationwide alert to all law enforcement organizations in Canada,and US border officers, to be on the look out for the barbaric rabbi that fled Israel, after revelations of the gruesome and systemic abuse he endured on kids.

VIN news has also been advised that their is a possibility that Rabbi Hen [not Chen as widely reported] is hiding with a former member of his sect A Jewish family somewhere in Quebec.

Also today the Canadian Jewish Congress has issued the following statement

"If Rabbi Elior Hen is in fact in Canada, as Israeli police have suggested, Canadian Jewish Congress is calling on him to report immediately tothe local authorities." said Rabbi Reuven P Bulka, co-President of CJC.

"Canadian Jewish Congress is willing to assist in facilitating his surrender to Canadian authorities." Rabbi Bulka continued. "If Rabbi Hen so desires, we encourage him to contact our offices."

"We have complete faith in the Canadian and Israeli authorities to conduct a full and proper investigation so that justice is served." said CJC co-president Sylvain Abitbol.

• The church has been based in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah since the early 20th Century. The church also has enclaves in Colorado, South Dakota, Texas and British Columbia.

• Plural marriage is believed to bring exaltation in heaven, based on the early teachings of Joseph Smith, who founded the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830.

• Smith began teaching polygamy in 1843 and reportedly married more than 30 women.

• There are an estimated 40,000 fundamentalists practicing polygamy across the Intermountain West.

• The FLDS is the largest-known polygamous sect. Membership is estimated at roughly 6,000 based on U.S. Census numbers.

• FLDS women wear prairie-style clothing and the men dress conservatively, covered from ankle to wrist, but FLDS families also have minivans and cellphones.

• The FLDS practice polygamy in marriages arranged by the church president, who is also described as a prophet.

• Warren Jeffs, 52, has been the FLDS prophet since 2002.

• Last year Jeffs was convicted in Utah of two felony counts of accomplice to rape and sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life.

(AP) — Lawyers for a polygamist sect that is the subject of a massive child-abuse investigation argued in court Wednesday that although its members' multiple marriages and cloistered ways may be unusual, they have a right to their faith and privacy.Gary Goldstein, a San Antonio lawyer representing the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also told a judge that the search of the temple in the sect's West Texas compound is analagous to a law enforcement search of the Vatican or other holy places.

Goldstein asked the judge to throw out at least some of the search warrants as unconstitutional, but failing that urged authorities to handle any documents seized with respect.

Prosecutor Allison Palmer countered that the purpose in seizing the documents was to uncover evidence of criminal activity, not to malign a religion.

State troopers and child welfare officials began a search of the FLDS compound in Eldorado last Thursday after a 16-year-old girl there called a local family violence shelter to report her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. The search warrant covered all documents related to marriages among sect members, including photos and entries possibly written in family Bibles.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Dale Barlow, 50, who is believed to be in Arizona.

Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

Child welfare investigators said their interviews with 416 children and 139 women who have been removed from or left the compound since the raid began revealed that girls were required to enter into a 'spiritual' and polygamous marriage — recognized by the church but forbidden by Texas law — with much older men for the purpose of producing children. Boys were raised to perpetuate the cycle.

The affidavits signed by chief investigator Lynn McFadden detail the 16-year-old's hushed phone calls, but days after raiding the West Texas compound, officials still aren't sure where the girl is. She is not named among the children in initial custody petitions by the state.

Authorities were trying to determine the identities and parentage of many of the children; some were unwilling or unable to provide the names of their biological parents or identified multiple mothers.

Texas authorities say they have legal custody of the 416 children, all of those believed to have lived at the ranch, which is about 40 miles south of San Angelo and a nearly 200-mile drive west of San Antonio.

Court documents said a number of teen girls at the 1,700-acre compound were pregnant, and all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse."

An unknown number of men and women were at the ranch while authorities completed the search of the gleaming 80-foot-high temple, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, a doctor's office and housing units. Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday the adults were not being held, but if they left the compound, they could not return while the search continued.

At least two FBI agents were seen entering the back entrance of the temple on Tuesday. Spokesmen for the FBI and DPS declined comment.

The Texas investigation is the state's first of FLDS members, but prosecutors in Utah and Arizona have pursued several church members in recent years, including sect leader Warren Jeffs. He is serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old wed to her cousin in Utah. He awaits trial on other charges in Arizona.

Two men in the compound have been arrested and charged with interfering with the Eldorado search.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is headed for recession this year and there is a 25 percent chance world growth will drop to 3.0 percent or less, a level that would be considered recessionary, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

The IMF said the global expansion of the last five years was fast losing ground in the face of a major financial crisis brought on by a downturn in the U.S. housing sector that continues "full blast."

The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook put world growth at 3.7 percent this year, the second time in four months the global watchdog cut its forecast.

In October, it had looked for growth of 4.8 percent, a forecast it had lowered to 4.1 percent in January to try to account for the world's fast-spreading credit woes.

The IMF sees only a bit of a pick-up next year, with growth reaching 3.8 percent, somewhat slower than that following the 2001 U.S. recession.

In the United States, growth in economic output will skid from a subpar 2.2 percent in 2007 to a bare-bones 0.5 percent this year and 0.6 percent in 2009, the Fund said.

But U.S. Treasury's Undersecretary for International Affairs, David McCormick, said the IMF's forecast for the United States was "unduly pessimistic," also acknowledging that a "significant downturn was underway.

"Those numbers, in terms of the outlook for the United States in 2008 and 2009, as well as the outlook for other regions around the world were significantly below consensus," McCormick told a news conference.

IMF chief economist, Simon Johnson, said a large housing inventory overhang suggests the U.S. housing correction would continue for some time. This would combine with a "broader weakening" of the U.S. economy affecting consumers and consumption and related strains in the labor market.

FALLING HOUSE PRICES

Johnson said the IMF expects U.S. house prices to drop in the order of 14 to 20 percent to the end of 2008.

"That is a fairly large decline by historical standards in the United States; it is a very large decline, but is not unprecedented compared to the experience of other advanced economies in past 30, or so, years," he added.

Meanwhile, the IMF said Western Europe would be affected by the downturn in the United States, cutting the growth outlook for the euro zone to 1.4 percent this year, down from a January forecast of 1.6 percent and off sharply from last year's 2.6 percent expansion.

For 2009, it expects euro-zone growth of just 1.2 percent.

The IMF cautioned that financial market strains would persist until there was greater clarity about the extent and distribution of losses on structured securities, and until banks rebuild capital and strengthen their balance sheets.

Johnson said the first line of defense for governments in dealing with the crisis was monetary policy, followed by fiscal measures. The use of public money should only be considered "in sensible ways to prevent problems from getting worse."

ABOVE-TREND GROWTH

In contrast, emerging and developing economies have so far been less affected by the financial market turbulence and their growth is set to remain above trend, led by China and India.

The IMF said, however, there were signs economic activity was starting to moderate in some emerging and developing countries. Here, countries would not always remain insulated, especially if the U.S.-led downturn worsened, it added.

Meanwhile, rising inflation in the developing world from higher food and energy prices, and overheating pressures as economic growth outstripped potential, were the biggest immediate challenges for policy-makers, the IMF said.

In Asia, robust inter-regional trade has helped to insulate the region from the slowdown in the West, although a sharper downturn could pose problems for export-dependent nations.

It said Japan and the emerging economies of Asia have limited direct exposure to U.S. subprime securities but would suffer spillover in the export sector if demand weakened.

The economic expansion in regional growth locomotive China is projected to moderate to 9.3 percent this year from 11.4 percent in 2007, while growth in India is expected to slow to 7.9 percent from 9.2 percent last year.

Does Torah Tmimah have liabiliby insurance that will make payment on their lawsuits or is gross negligence not covered?

Will Isaac Hirsh be able to sue his parents and Reb Ahron S.?

Has there been even ONE case where any of the signers of the ban have told ANYBODY to go to the police? Are more going to "slip through our fingers? How many more will have their rebbe's hand slip into their "hoisen"?

I'm afraid that Rosenblum's being highly disengenious with this article. If Pesach hotels are so terrible let the Rabbonim not attend them as 'scholars in residence' or make money giving their hechsherim. Otherwise they're speaking from both sides of their mouths.

The father of the Jerusalem children subjected to horrific abuse succeeded yesterday in locating Shimon Gabai, one of the main suspects in the case, who had eluded police for the past few weeks.

The father, whose name cannot be published, decided to help the police find all of the fugitive suspects, who are thought to have followed Rabbi Elior Chen's directives for "correcting" children. Chen fled to Canada when the case broke.

Early yesterday morning, the father contacted a Jerusalem detective, Motti Edri, and informed him that he had found the suspect, who was with him. They agreed on a meeting place, where the suspect turned himself in to the police.

Gabai had apparently received a beating from the children's father, and had a blood-soaked handkerchief covering his eye yesterday at the police station and courthouse, where his remand was extended by seven days.

Police detectives had had trouble locating Gabai. Even though his name and photograph were published in the media, and even though a person who had been staying with him was questioned at length by the police, all efforts to find him were in vain.

The father informed police several days ago that he had tracked Gabai down to a house in the city of Elad, but the suspect had fled by the time police arrived there.

In his interrogation yesterday, Gabai admitted he knew the other people arrested in the case, and that he had been in the places where the abuse took place, but did not confess to commiting the acts themselves.

Detective Malchiel Hatab told the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court that according to the statements gathered from the children and the other suspects in the case, Gabai caused burns on the children's bodies using cigarette lighters and heaters, hit them with hammers, and shook them to the point of unconsciousness. He allegedly also forced them to drink alcoholic beverages.

Gabai is suspected of involvement in the abuse of two boys, aged 3 and 5, which came to light three weeks ago. Police believe Gabai was in the apartment on the night the children were taken to the hospital, and took part in the assault.

The 3-year-old boy, who the police believe was abused by his mother and a male friend of hers, was declared in critical condition as a result, and his doctors are not optimistic about his regaining consciousness in view of the severe brain injuries he sustained. The older child's condition has greatly improved.

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N) has liquidated three floundering investment funds that lost value and ended up taking $1 billion of assets onto its balance sheet, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The bank blamed the liquidation on "market disruptions that occurred in the second half of the 2007 fiscal year and further deterioration in the 2008 quarter," according to the quarterly filing on Wednesday.

In Europe, Lehman Brothers shares were down 4.1 percent from their last close in Frankfurt at 25.50 euros (LHMH.F).

Lehman's announcement comes at a time when losses from subprime and other mortgages have rocked several banks and dealt a blow to their balance sheets.

A Lubavitcher rabbi managed to spy on Postville and reported back to the Crown Heights beis din on many, many kashrus violations by Rubashkin.

There is also a letter here from the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe admonishing Rubashkin's father that their chassidim have to follow the Baal Hatanya's shita of always having a mashgiach temidi. The Rubashkins of course just do whatever the Hell they want.

DANBURY -- A Danbury man accused of seeking sex with a mother and her 7-year-old daughter was a respected member of his temple and a coordinator for a local youth soccer league.

The arrest of 46-year-old Leonard Shuster in Clermont, Fla., Tuesday shocked members of the Brewster synagogue he attended with his wife and three sons and those who knew him from his involvement with the Danbury Youth Soccer Club.

"That is pretty scary," said Vitas Kotach, of Danbury, who coached a team of 5- and 6-year-olds last year in a league for which Shuster was a volunteer coordinator.

It remains unclear how much direct contact Shuster had with the young players, or whether he was still involved with the organization at the time of his arrest. Numerous attempts to contact soccer club president Mike Diker and his wife, Liz, who also is associated with the club, were unsuccessful Thursday. A person who answered the phone at their residence said they were out for the evening.

Shuster, who is a sales analyst for a beverage company, also is a member of the board of directors at the Temple Beth Elohim.

"I only know what I read," said Rabbi Solomon Acrish. "My concern is for the family and the children. They have to be protected."

While Shuster was involved with activities at the temple, the rabbi said he was "most definitely not" in contact with children there.

Shuster was arrested by detectives from the Lake County Sheriff's Office as the result of an Internet sting operation

that began in January, according to Sgt. John Herrell, a spokesman for the agency.Over the past three months, investigators said, the Danbury man conducted an online correspondence with a detective Shuster thought was a 32-year-old woman with a 7-year-old daughter.

The conversations quickly turned sexual, and in subsequent e-mails and telephone conversations, Shuster discussed plans "to meet with the mother and her daughter for sexual activity," the investigator, Detective Chris Loyko, said.

Authorities said Shuster advised the "mother" how to groom the young girl for sex -- by sleeping together naked and going around the house without clothes. Shuster also sent the mother at least 120 images of child pornography, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Shuster finally e-mailed that he would be coming to Florida on Tuesday, ostensibly on a business trip but really for a sexual encounter, authorities said. He was taken into custody while looking for what he thought was the woman's house.

"This is a shock," said Laurie Amatulli, whose husband, Rich, worked as a coach in the league coordinated by Shuster.

"He was the go-to person when you need shirts or registration information," she said. "Never once was there an issue. He was always very professional."

Authorities said Shuster admitted communicating with the mother and sending child pornography, and told investigators he only transmitted the images from his computer at work.

Meanwhile, according to Ha'aretz, two at least two of the men involved with Chen, Shimon Gabai and Avraham Masklatchi, study at Yeshivat Nahar HaShalom.

What is Yeshivat Nahar HaShalom?

It is a Sefardic kabbalists' yeshiva located just off the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.

Last time I checked, it was headed by Rav Shemueli, who is considered to be the Rosh HaMekubalim, the head of the Sefardic kabbalists in Israel. (By contrast, Rav Kaduri, when he was alive, was considered to be the Zaken, the elder, of the Sefardi kabbalists.

In fairness to Nahar Shalom, it had ba'alei teshuva and less-than-stellar students integrated in the yeshiva, which I believe also had a high school.

Rav Shemueli is a very nice, kind man who I met on two or three occasions 14 years ago and I highly doubt anything taught or practiced by this cult comes from him.

And it is still unclear where Rabbi Elior Chen studied and and what he bases his 'teachings' on, although it would seem he, too, studied once at Nahar HaShalom.

But Nahar Hashalom's name is still attached to this case and, as far as I know, there has been no official reaction to that from the yeshiva. At the very least, it should condemn the child abuse, the exorcisms, and the very idea that children should every be treated horrifically.

It may seem to be so obvious that it is not even necessary for the yeshiva to state this.

Unfortunately, as this case itself proves, the idea that one does not torture and abuse children to correct behavior or exorcize demons is not as obvious as it should be.

This is the same family who criticized UOJ for exposing Kolko & Margo.

And now we understand why they went down fighting with the sinking Tendler ship. They owe enormous gratitude to Moses Tendler who took Naomi into his house. They so far as to lie in the name of R' Chaim Kanievsky to protect the Tendler family.

If you read the whole article at this URL you see what a scandal it is that glatt costs so much more than non-glatt.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a7616/News/New_York.html

by Stewart AinStaff Writer

Call it the 11th Plague.

As food prices nationwide rise at a rapid clip — an expected 3.5 to 4.5 percent this year on top of a 4 percent increase last year — Jews are being hit with a double whammy because of Passover, when kosher food prices are generally higher anyway.

Matzah prices — fueled by skyrocketing wheat costs — are soaring, as is the cost of complete seder dinner packages. Beef prices are rising too — with the price of brisket up $4 a pound over last year in some places. And, so as not to lose customers, some area retailers are trimming their profit margins, shielding consumers somewhat from kosher-for-Passover sticker shock.

Still, this is shaping up to be the most expensive Passover in years.

Menachem Lubinsky, the head of Lubicom, the kosher food industry’s trade and marketing group, said that five or six years ago shmurah matzah cost $10 a pound. This year, he said, he has seen it sell for from between $18.50 and $20.50.

Bleemy Spiro, the owner of Brach’s Supermarket of Queens in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, said she too is “cutting down on our profit margin” and increasing by $20 the cost of a family dinner. She said her store’s turkey dinner for 10, which includes dessert, matzah and grape juice, is $269.

A number of stores have not raised prices for their prepared dinners.

In Rego Park, Tov Caterers is charging the same $165 he charged last year for a chicken dinner for 8 to 10 people.

“We’re absorbing the price increases,” said Heshie Lazar, the owner. “The dinner includes appetizers and soup, chicken and side dishes. If bought individually it would cost more.”

The cost of seder dinner prices are also being held at Eretz on the Upper West Side. A chicken dinner for 10 costs $36 per person and the brisket dinner with mushroom and onion costs $45 per person, according to Yishay Gamzulatova, the manager.

“And we didn’t raise the price for shmurah matzah either,” he said. “We’re selling it for $16. That’s the best price in town.”

In Brooklyn, Samuel Genuth, the owner of Meal Mart on Avenue M in Flatbush, said his store has seen a 25 percent increase in some wholesale prices, but that he is able to raise his prices only so much.

“A raw chicken costs me $1.65 a pound and I sell a barbecue chicken for $6.99 a pound because you lose half of it in the cooking,” Genuth said. “I can’t go up in price. I’m embarrassed to charge more.”

He said he increased the price of his brisket and turkey only $1, explaining, “You can’t go up more. You can’t be smart, because you lose customers.”

David Perlow, the owner of Sammy’s Kosher Meat Market of Northern Westchester in Bedford Hills, said there is such price fluctuation before the holiday that he is unable to post his prices far enough in advance to offer complete dinners.

“I never know the prices,” he said. “This week Empire chicken came in and the price was up 10 cents a pound.”

Perlow said many people who had considered going out to dinner for Passover or having the meal catered have now told him that they have been quoted a price of $40 per person.

“So they come here and buy by the pound,” he said. “The package deals don’t seem to be great deals anymore.”

In addition, Perlow said he is telling his customers to buy their chickens now and freeze them rather than to wait until the eve of the holiday and risk not being able to get chickens. He said that happened two years ago when he ran out because the distributor had exhausted his supply.

“So when customers say they want to place an order for two days before the holiday, I say I can’t do it,” he said. “If [the distributor] doesn’t have it, I don’t have it. People say I ran out, but we didn’t have any because there wasn’t any. So I don’t want to promise chicken or turkey I’m not going to have. ... After 17 years, I thought I had it figured out. But they have taken the fun out of this business.”

Consumers may also find the cost of Israeli products considerably higher now as the price of those goods begins to reflect the value of the plunging dollar, according to Christophe Hervieu, vice president of Osem U.S.A.

“Since last summer, there has been a 25 percent increase in the value of the [Israeli] shekel,” he said “Prices will vary by product, but there will be a significant increase.”

He said that because prices for Osem’s Passover products were set in the second half of last year, they do not reflect that increase. Non-Passover products, however, do reflect some of that increase. But Hervieu said the full 25 percent increase would eventually be reflected in the price.

Here’s a picture of the Jerusalem woman (Michal Schwartz Shenbaum) accused of abusing her kids:

According to two independent sources, the mother of the daughter with the abused children is Naomi Klass Mauer, the founder of The Jewish Press — Rabbi Shalom Klass. Naomi had the bitterest of divorces from her husband Yehuda Schwartz. It was written up in New York magazine (circa 1990) where it strongly hinted she had played around.

Moshe Dovid Tendler was the lead rabbi and guru for Rabbi Shalom Klass when he was fighting for his daughter’s Get without offering a significant financial settlement to Yehuda Schwartz, and she became a near live-in at the Tendler home. Older Tendler and, yes, Mordechai Tendler, took her and her father in and became near-family for years. Michal and Naomi were constant in both Tendler homes for years. That is a reason why many bloggers complained that the Jewish Press was not only whitewashing the Mordechai Tendler affair but defending him to the bitter end.

A source writes:

Naomi’s claim about her ex husbands abuse and turning her into an agunah is a lot of one-sided bs. Her husband Judah demanded a share for his building up of the newspaper which he did a great job of. She had use of the newspaper to badmouth him. Also many of her so called agunah cases are stories of women who don’t want to take a get because they are trying to get money out of their husbands and will only take a get on their terms. Basically financial disputes. When you turn these cases into ‘Agunah’ cases you cheapen the real chained women.

Btw, apparently her ex husband Judah had sympathy for Dr Ivan Mauer who was a widower at the time and allowed him and his kids to move in with his family, unfortunately his wife went with the Doctor and he got the boot. I don’t think there was infidelity involved and you never know the real story, but it was a pretty strange story.

I am not connected to the Jewish Press in any way shape or form, but admit to being very biased against it.It is just so dumb and silly and so freakin’ rightwing especially when it comes to many people I personally disagree with vehemently such as the rightwing settlers who are stirring up trouble all the time and one of the few newspapers to allow moronic ads about the Lubavitcher Rebbe being alive and the Messiah, when he was alive AND when he passed away! They also lack any real spine, for example years ago when Meir Kahane was banned from the Knesset they stopped his weakly column! Now I think that Kahane was a crazy nut, but if you allowed his rantings before have the balls to print them afterwords too!

Here’s a law review article that mentions Schwartz vs. Schwartz.

Naomi eventually married Dr. Ivan Mauer. They lived in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Michal went to the Shulamit yeshiva.

Michal and her future husband David Shenbaum moved to Israel and became West Bank Gush Kutif type frum (I am not saying they lived there but that type) and then they moved to the old city of Jerusalem and became Breslaver Hasidim. They were introduced to some characters among the Breslavers who do drugs. These guys got nvolved in their marriage and some of them moved into the home.

YULA graduate (1986?) David Shenbaum (made aliyah in 1993) claims that once these guys moved in, he couldn’t see his children. So why didn’t he go see the police?

Anyone have any information on why these Modern Orthodox types would go on such a dark and deviant path?

How could their kids be so severely abused in the Old City of Jerusalem where everybody lives on top of each other?

Someone spent an hour going through all the court documents with the RCC & Rocky Stefansky. He says that Rabbis Bess, Union & Sauer were eventually exonerated when the nitva was proven to be a fraudster who was manipulating the court. He says that Luke was going to town with an early excerpt that did not pan out as a fraud by the RCC.

I spent 20 minutes going through the papers quickly and did not see the initial fraud ruling being overturned.

BEIJING (AP) — China said Thursday that it had uncovered a plot by members of a Muslim minority group to sabotage the Beijing Summer Olympics with suicide bombings and kidnappings of foreign visitors............

I just honored Naomi Klass Mauer as an "Extraordinary Woman" of Brooklyn

http://www.brooklynda.org/newsroom/womens_hist_mnth_07.htm#NAOMI

Naomi Klass Mauer Manhattan Beach

Naomi Klass Mauer is associate editor of The Jewish Press and editor of the “Family Issues” section of the newspaper. She is also a frequent contributor of articles to the paper.

Aside from her work at The Jewish Press, Mrs. Mauer spends countless hours helping abused women throughout Brooklyn’s many communities. She also assists women who are denied a religious Jewish divorce from their husbands.

Mrs. Mauer is married to Dr. Ivan Mauer, and is a proud mother and grandmother of a large family, who mostly reside in Israel. Mrs. Mauer is also the daughter of the late Rabbi Sholom Klass and of Mrs. Irene Klass, founders of The Jewish Press.

The Chevrah has assembled a team of Chefs, Pastry Chefs, Garde masters, Chocolate and Candy Specialists, Sommeliers and Culinary artists, who work year round to compile the most innovative, and luscious selection of food and beverages. From Fluffy Pancakes and Waffles for breakfast to Delectable Beef Wellington, Sweet Breads, Rack of Lamb and Roasted Duck for dinner. From Sushi rolled daily by our master in-house Sushi Chef to hand-crafted chocolate confections. We will answer the one question that will cross your mind as your eyes and stomach feast on delicious pasta, cakes and cookies – “Yes, it is kosher for Pesach,” (and meets the highest Non-Gebrokts standards of Kashrus).

Our many daily meals, as well as our cocktail receptions, dessert extravaganzas and overflowing tea-rooms are prepared with the professional touch of a team of over 50 Specialty Chefs. Every meal is made on premises and will leave you every appetite satiated and every taste bud satisfied.

Like our meals, our baked confections are also prepared on premises. Our bakery department in an entirely separate entity. Our baking is done under the guidance of Master Baker Moshe Birnbaum, and award winning Executive Pastry Chefs Angel Elon and Wendy Israel. The results are desserts and Viennese tables featuring cakes, pastries, delectable desserts, chocolate fountains and more. Over the years, the Chevrah has taken our guests eating experiences from “over the moon,” to “out of this world.” The pictures speak for themselves, but the taste is something you have to experience for yourself.

Revelations this week that Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara spent some £15,000 on a six-day visit to London during the 2006 Lebanon war have damaged the Likud leader’s image ... his alleged extravagances — said to have included a £360 hairdresser’s bill, £500 for dry-cleaning and £1,500 for theatre tickets ...

Mr Netanyahu has launched an NIS 2 million (£290,000) libel suit against Channel 10 television, which broke the story, accusing it of political persecution.

Mr Netanyahu and his wife Sara stayed in a suite at the Connaught Hotel in London’s Mayfair, which costs up to £3,800 a night. Mrs Netanyahu used the hotel hairdresser and visited the theatre, and the couple and their security entourage were reported to have dined at the Oxo Tower on the South Bank.

Sima Kadmon commented in Yediot Aharonot: “A public figure who stays at a hotel that costs NIS 12,000 a night while one-and-a-half million of the public he represents are huddled in stifling, smelly shelters; who goes to the theatre during the most difficult week of the Lebanon war; who spends astronomic sums on meals, drinks, hair-styling and dry-cleaning. This is not hedonism. It is piggishness.”

But few senior politicians joined the attack against Mr Netanyahu.

“So many people are now in glass houses,” said an aide to the Likud leader, referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s ongoing corruption investigations, “that they really can’t afford to pick a fight over this.”

No one has ever been able to explain to me the logic behind the fressing at Pesach with the Chevrah.

When they first started, Dovid Goldwasser gave the hashgocho. He means well but he has zero experience, especially for a huge achrayus like a Pesach mega-resort.

Lately, Eliezer Eidlitz is in charge. Some of his shitos are pretty fruit-loopy and he is not considered to be a reliable standard. The only reason why Feldheim publishes his book is because they are personal friends.

Which rabbonim are fressing with the Chevrah this year?

The Agudah's Yankel Horowitz.

R' Dovid Weinberger from Lawrence

R' Shmuel Rennert from Chofetz Chaim

R' Moshe Sherman from Touro

Rav Weiss, the rosh yeshiva who is editor of the Artscroll Shas

The biggest surprise is R' Shaya Cohen from Priority One although maybe he is bringing his own food. The man is very aware of all the corruption in kashrus and does not eat meat from any standard outlet.

Almost every year I receive letters from these grandmothers who, on one hand, are delighted and overjoyed to see their children and grandchildren, but on the other hand, have difficulty coping with the sheer volume of work. They can never escape the kitchen. No sooner is one seudah finished, than they have to prepare the next. And then there are the grandchildren who are adorable and sweet, but who leave a trail of matzah crumbs wherever they tread...not to speak of toys, soiled diapers, and everything else that goes with having toddlers in the house.

These bubbies complain that as much as they are delighted to see their children... daughters and daughters-in-law, they have difficulty impressing upon them the need to pitch in and help take care of their children. The girls happily go off to visit old friends and neighbors, anticipating that somehow, magically, the work will get done and their children cared for. I have addressed these problems in the past on numerous occasions and pointed out that there is nothing wrong with grandmothers making it amply clear to their daughters and daughters-in-law that, while they are delighted to welcome them, they have to remember that they are not in a hotel with 24- hour service.

So far, besides Goldstein's, there is only one other publicly known case of kedusha ketana in the last few years -- that of Suri and Yossi Sharashefsky's daughter in Brooklyn. Yossi Sharashefsky, however, did not have his act validated by a religious court, as Israel Goldstein did.

While the price of grains have gone up due to increased energy costs and the use of corn for ethanol (farmers are switching from wheat to corn, so there is less wheat and costs go up), if the 33-50% increase in the cost of matza was really due to increased wheat prices, then the price of regular bread would have gone up correspondingly. While bread has gone up, it hasn't gone up as much as matza.

What's interesting is that I spoke to a baker and he told me that flour is about 300% what he was paying a year ago. Since matza is just flour and water, one would expect an even larger price increase based on the higher cost of flour. While matza went up, it didn't go up 300%. Why? Because the $14/lb price already has such a substantial profit margin that they could absorb some of the cost.

There was a big kerfuffle at a banquet for the elite with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. His low class peasant wife chapped oiss all the freebies she could get her hands on that were meant to be shared by all the guests such as $1000 designer handbags. When the other guests told her they didn't get anything, she refused to hand over the loot.

The Daily News noticed that some of these one-of-a-kind handbags are now being sold by someone with an alias for $3500 on eBay.

Putz Markowitz first defended his wife but after all the newspapers got involved he is pulling a David Paterson and offering to pay back although it's not clear how all the de facto robbery victims will be located.

Actually, both Markowitzes are peasants. I happen to know some of their friends. They are a bunch of shleppers.

When Moishe Neumann Esq (Kirhauser's eidim) made a chassunne for his daughter at the Meadowlands, they planned on giving out leather bound siddurim. The room they were stored in was ransacked by a bunch of Hungarian pigs who ran off with most of them before the seudah started. The hotel staff were fighting the pigs and grabbing some of them back. When it came time to bentch, there weren't many left to give to guests.

Here is a letter publicized by Michael Hersh. The lines that start with FACT – are the counter claims to his propaganda.

It is also EXTREMELY important to let everyone know the sequence of events PRIOR to [Yeshiva University’s David] Pelcovitz interviewing my son in Jamaica. The fact that we asked him 3 days beforehand to travel to Jamaica on our behalf to do an independent evaluation of the boy AND the school – and he refused to go. Yet 3 days later he traveled there without our knowledge and without having ANY facts about Yitzchok Meir’s psychiatric history or behavior at home; he never even spoke to us or the prior mental health professionals even once.

FACT: Dr. Pelcovitz had no knowledge of this case prior to 5 hours before getting on the plane, there is talk that someone may have said he would be a good candidate to go, but was never approached himself by the family

FACT: We have a letter from Dr. Hizami, who only saw Isaac Hersh ONCE, and for a very short period of time, (10 – 15 minutes), but before speaking to Isaac, he spent over an hour with Michael Hersh, and said that based on his assessment, this child needs to be in a “special school” – even if this was true, which we know was not, Tranquility Bay was definitely not the right place” “Dr. Pelcovitz realized that the opinion of the parents and the “professionals” have been tainted, and wanted to hear first hand from Isaac about the allegations of abuse in tranquility bay and the allegations of abuse by his own father, Michael, both in Israel and NY.

However, he had spoken at length to Wolbe, Rivka Cohen, Yitzchok Meir’s twin brother, and everyone who had an agenda to distort the truth. Pelcovitz even traveled to Jamaica together with Arye Wolbe and his father, so he really just went there with a clear intention to confirm what he had been told. He even refused to look around the school at all.

FACT: What agenda? We have a letter from Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, sent to Rabbi Aron Schecter dated Dec 2007, begging him to look into the case, and not to blindly believe all that Michael was telling him, and clearly stating that he wants to take him into his home once again.

Also, no mention was ever made that the parents were trying for 8 months to get a team of people from the community to travel to Jamaica and visit the school and their son to provide an objective report; no one was willing to go.

FACT: The above statement is an absolute LIE. The parents went so far that no one should even know that Isaac was there.

It should also be made clear that Arye Wolbe kicked Yitzchok Meir out of his house prior to his parents sending him to Tranquility Bay; Arye Wolbe’s statement was that he would “bring the kid to New York and leave him in the middle of the street if his parents are not willing to take him in” since he did not want to have him in his own house for even one more day.

FACT: Once again a lie. Aryeh Wolbe and his wife were expecting their fourth child, and did not have room in their home. They made arrangements to have the child near by, at another frum family, and Michael Hersh would not hear of it. They also made plans to send Isaac to Toronto, where he would have been warmly received by Rabbi Moishe Fuerst. Michael Hersh agreed, and this is the only reason why Isaac came back to NY, in order to get a passport so he can go to Toronto. No one ever thought that Michael would send his child to such a brutal facility in Jamaica.

The parents then called friends in Israel and England to look all over for a school that would accept Yitzchok Meir, but there was no school anywhere in the US, Israel, or England that was willing to accept Yitzchok Meir that he himself was willing to go to.

FACT: Once again, lies fabricated by the Hersh parents.

The embassy was in the process of interviewing Yitzchok Meir only because the parents gave full written permission for the US embassy (and any other 3rd party official) to interview their son in private any time they wanted to.

FACT: Somewhat True, the embassy told the facility to Bring Isaac there, and the facility called Michael to notify him. Michael then called the embassy, and FORBADE any outsiders (or what he calls 3rd party) from speaking to his son. It was only when Isaac saw the Wolbe’s at the entrance to the embassy, that Isaac requested to be able to see the visitors from the states, that the consular officials allowed them to enter.

Last but not least, we gave full permission for the New York ACS (Administrative Child Services) agency to speak directly to our son Yitzchok Meir on a private telephone call while he was in Tranquility Bay. They called him just about 2 weeks before this entire “rescue” happened and the ACS caseworker told me that it was clear from speaking to him that he was calm, relaxed, and not in any danger whatsoever. He wanted to get out of the school but said he was fine, had adequate clothing, food, and a place to sleep, and did not mention anything about abuse whatsoever.

FACT: Isaac was called by ACS, and during the entire interview, he was in front of two of the staffers and was not able to speak freely

LEESBURG, Va. - A jury convicted an iconic civil-rights figure of incest Thursday after concluding that he had sex with his teenage daughter 15 years ago. The Rev. James L. Bevel, 71, a top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. who also helped organize the Million Man March, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

The four-day trial in Loudoun County Circuit Court included bizarre testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.

Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge.

Jurors heard a phone call between Bevel and his daughter in which he never explicitly admits to sexual intercourse but seems to take for granted that it occurred. During the call he explains the importance of teaching his daughter "the science of marriage" and admits that he did not want her to get pregnant after the incident.

Family members who confronted Bevel in 2004 testified that Bevel read a written accusation by his daughter and replied that he did not contest the facts she laid out.

But Bevel denied the charge on the witness stand. He testified that his family mistakenly perceived his refusal to deny the specific allegations against him as an admission of guilt.

Public defender Bonnie Hoffman urged the jury to ignore evidence that Bevel led an unconventional, communal lifestyle in which he taught that it was parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.

Instead, she told the jury to focus on the single incident for which Bevel was charged: an act of sexual intercourse that occurred in 1993 or 1994 while the daughter was a teenager and was living with her father in Leesburg.

Hoffman said there were questions about the timeline — the daughter said she could not recall exactly what year the act occurred, and her recollection of when she lived in Virginia did not fully mesh with school records and other testimony.

Hoffman also questioned why the daughter returned to voluntarily live with her father after the alleged incest. The daughter testified that she went back because she had nowhere else to go.

Prosecutor Nicole Wittmann warned the jury against getting confused by Bevel's sometimes convoluted explanations of his philosophies and his justifications for his actions.

"There's no excuse for his philosophy in the law, or whether he's eccentric, or whether he's an historical figure. ... There's no exception" Wittmann said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify the victims of sexual abuse. The daughter is one of 16 children Bevel said he has had with several different women.

In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), two of the stalwart organizations that led efforts to desegregate the South.

In 1992, he was vice presidential running mate to political maverick Lyndon LaRouche, who has a home in Loudoun County but at the time was in a federal prison for a tax conviction.

Due to the large number of Cellcom subscribers using kosher phones, phone numbers with a prefix reserved for kosher phones have run out and the company had to make a new exchange prefix available. After receiving the approval of Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret a new kosher prefix is set to open with the numbers beginning 052-71.

Since the special prefixes were introduced, each of the cellular companies has set aside a two-digit prefix capable of accommodating 100,000 subscribers. Now Cellcom, which has the largest number of kosher cell phone users, has become the first cellular provider exhaust its supply of kosher phone numbers.

Company executives, led by CEO Mr. Amos Shapira, Deputy Director of Marketing Mr. Adi Cohen, Director of Private Marketing Mr. Yoni Sabag and Chareidi Sector Marketing Manager R' Yechezkel Chorzhavsky, appeared before Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret at the home of one of its members, HaRav Yosef Binyomin Wosner.

Cellcom heads showed the rabbonim the precise sales figures of over 90,000 kosher phones (7,500 have been set aside for existing organizations and institutions to allow them to expand their phone use).

A comprehensive survey of the general communications market was also presented at the meeting, including figures on the impressive growth of kosher cell phone use, in contrast with third-generation devices, which pose grave spiritual dangers and have claimed many victims Rachmono litzlan.

Company executives expressed their appreciation to those involved in the effort to make kosher cell phones available, namely Vaadas HaRabbonim, which operates at the behest of maranan verabonon gedolei Yisroel shlita to seek communications solutions suited to the chareidi sector.

1. Kosher Cell Phones2. No Internet3. Filtered Internet for those who actually 'work' (four-letter word) for a living-Hashem Yiracheim.4.Filtered water against the super-microscopic copods.5. No Indian Hair Sheitlach 6. No human features, faceless styrofoam store-window heads to model sheitels.7. Banning of separate-seating music concerts.8. Rampant coverups and protection of child molesters and predators which includes Hall-of-Shame inductees such as Kolko, Mondro-Pervo, Tendlers, Eisgrau, Bryks, Lanner..... and the enablers have their special wing-Ichud Molestas Gur, Agudah, Torah Umersorah.9. Ka$hru$ Supervision that's a tragic joke: Ruba$hkin, Finkel, Heinee-Man, Katz, Gorni$h.10. Corrupt Botei Din.11. The development and perpetuation of a Welfare State and Underclass by the insistence and brainwashing by the "Ro$hei-Ye$hiva that EVERY Bochur/Yungerman must learn full-time. Work is Batlonus and Treif. Hashem will provide... Translated that means find yourself a rich Shver. Have Bitachon, young man. And every year the Kimche D'Pischa lists grow bigger and bigger and so does the number of Guests at Kaminetskys Pesach-Fresage Chevrah Hotel and other Hotel Peasch Getaways around the World. A Tale of Two Cities. It is the Best of Times, It is the Worst of Times.12. Signed Takonos by Unser Gedolim against lavish Simchas which our middle-class work-like a ferd-Yossel Schmucks can't afford to make anyway; but these Drek-Tachtonim Shveig and appear at the fancy big-gelt Simchas their fat-cat donators make.13. Matzoh Shmurah at $22/pound. Lechem OiyNee, indeed.14. The arbitrary jacked up prices of all Kosher L'Pesach foods. Screw the M-asses. A Reisman's Pesach round chocolate cake at $15.00 each; who ever imagined that a little bit of potato starch and sugar could cost so much? Hey "Rabbi" Reisman, are you gonna talk about this at your next Noveeh Shiur?

I understand that there are many frustrating issues out there but I think you are going a little too far.

I don't know that the kosher cellphones are such a bad idea. Why? Because I happen to know about the extent that bochurim in NY yeshivos are misusing internet equipped phones. One of largest vendors in the NYC area to the frum segment told me that the most expensive phones with the most advanced features are purchased primarily by yeshiva boys. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are acccessing all kinds of forbidden material. Did you know for instance that the most hard core porno, once only available with hefty subscription fees is now 100% free. Without giving away the details & causing further michshol, the NY Times explained where it can be accessed & how once lucrative XXX businesses are taking a major hit.

Copepods

I find it ironic that Boog is siding with Belsky of all people, one of the only mattirim. These bugs are not microscopic. They are hard to see because they are translucent. If you clean out the green slime from a filter you can see them coated in it.

Indian Hair

I don't know enough in the sugyos in Avodah Zara to pass judgement and I suspect neither does Boog.

1. The possibility that bochurim are accessing X rated material from high-end expensive cell phones does not merit an across-the-board banning. That's Talibanesque and such bans produce behavioral consequences opposite to its intended outcome. Mayim Genovim Yimtoku. Obviously the Yeshivas and Rebbeim are striking outand not positively influencing their charges.

2. You're actually supporting my point. Chazal never assered what an average person can not see under normal viewing conditions. What "normal" Ben-Torah is going to spend time cleaning out slime from his water pipe with one hand and a magnifying glass fitted with a filter lens in the other hand?

If you relish straight jacket Chumros become ah Brisker.

Indians today do not worship their Indian womens hair as Avodah Zora nor ascribe any elements of deity to it as defined in the times of the Gemorah. If such practice was still extant, it would have received extensive coverage in National Geographic and the general press.

The kosher cellphones should be the worse thing. I still think they should be mandatory at least for bochurim. You'd also be surprised by the way how many married men are addicted to internet porn. Some of them wind up having illicit relationships through chat rooms and if they do or not, marriages have been ruined over it. They say the Tort Putz's brother has tried to treat some of these sad cases.

Copepods

There are different opinions of course of "normal viewing conditions". I know of only 3 poskim who are mattir the water as is. 2 of the 3 are corrupt individuals. Rav Elyashev has reviewed Belsky's teshuva and says it's irrelevant in light of the facts. R' Dovid Feinstein going leshitas his father R' Moshe also agrees it is forbidden.

Indian hair

It may be a moot point anyhow. It is very difficult to control the supply despite the shaytelmachers waving around teudos kashrus that are most likely a joke.

You see, according to knowledgable people in the industry, the "Italian" hair is often Indian in disguise. Ask Yudel Shain and investigative journalists from the New Yorker Magazine & elsewhere how Italians get first prize for adulterating just about anything food or other items they sell. Unless your wife's wig is from a small supply of Scandinavian or British hair, it most likely originated in India. At least one rosh yeshiva advises people not to waste their time trying to avoid the unavoidable.

I have to prove I am a somebody and the best way to accomplish that is to hang out with all the big movers & shakers at Pesach mit der Chevrah. If I was just stam a Fresser, there are plenty of places to stuff my face.

We all owe a big shkoyich to Chaim Kaminetsky for creating the ultimate status & chashivus symbol.

According to the rulebook, students had to ask permission to pass gas. If a student passed gas without permission, he was disciplined severely. If a student did ask permission, he was escorted to a side area and his gas passing was monitored. If he then didn’t pass gas, he was disciplined severely. It gives you an idea of the type of dehumanizing atmosphere at these places.

I’m not going to focus much on the abuse that occurs at these places, except to point out that the information is clearly available online. Even a few minutes of Googling will provide enough information to scare any reasonable parent away from the Tranquility Bay program, which is apparently the worst of all of these programs.

I am also disturbed by the reception that some, including the aforementioned Jewish music blogger, have given these posts.

First, about the comments. These comments take one or more of the forms listed below.

These commentors suggest that people shouldn’t assume the obvious conclusions are correct because “Da’as Torah,” in this case Rav Aharon Schechter, signed off on Isaac being sent to Tranquility Bay. They argue that no one is qualified to question Rav Schechter’s judgement.

In my opinion, this suggestion is pernicious. Dr. Pelcovitz has confirmed that Isaac was abused at Tranquility Bay. So, whether Rav Schecter was misled by Isaac’s father, or whether he was aware of the issues in advance, it’s clear that he exercised poor judgment here. Especially when he refused to reverse himself after he was contacted by a number of gedolim including Rav David Feinstein and Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky who felt that this was a case of pikuach nefesh, and made him aware of the abusive situation at TB. One does not ignore abuse because a rav, no matter how well-respected, is willing to allow it to continue.

If anything, when taken with Rav Schechter’s recent participation in a number of recent unfair bans including the Lipa ban and the wig store ban, this story clearly demonstrates that Rav Shechter has been more than willing to participate in and even initiate unfair and anti-halachik behavior.

The notion of rabbinic infallibility implied by these commentors has strong negative ramifications for our community and ensures the perpetuation of avlos.

I just wanted to update this post by telling whoever is reposting the same talking points on every single J-blog that I'm not dumb. I hope other bloggers that can see IP's are seeing that at least one person is pretending to be 4 or 5 different people with different names all postings supportive and defensive comments FOR the Hersh's.

Here is a piece of free advice. Instead of trying to control the direction of the conversation the blogs by deceivingly infiltrating their comments sections, why don't you release "the other side" of the story. Although as time goes on I don't think being sent to that torture camp can ever be defended. I'd rather Issac have been sent to a U.S. Jail, where he would have at least be treated with due process and rights.

And who is that am haaretz who only mentioned Kochav & Merchav? There is also a poor man's Bungalow Colony near the Camp Morris bunks that is a hangout for a bunch of rosh yeshivishe dudes like Ausband from Riverdale.

If you modern orthodox losers don't know the first thing about bungalow trivia, you shouldn't speak.

So let's see. The Jewish Press went on a rampage to protect Mordechai Tendler and went beserk against anyone trying to stop him, including the RCA Beis Din. So much for journalistic "principals" in "full disclosure" that Naomi Klass Mao-er is a Tendler bas bayis.

Where is Steven I Weiss and his cannon fodder shock troops who hold up the fort (fart?) of journalistic "integrity"? Or do you only come in for SIW's criticism if you author a competing blog?

1. Is it not curious and interesting that the co-pods only made their appearance and turned into a Shturm und Drang issue in NYC???

Never have been sighted in Lakewood, Ihr-HaKodesh, Monsey, Yerushalayim, London, Florida, etc. wherever you have a sizeable Jewish population.

And $hevach Finkel got a free pass in those precincts for over 10 years. Unzerer D-A$$ Toiyreh has elevated OX-GORING to a selective fine art.

This "issue" is a crock.

2. Cell-phone Porn: You can't Kol Koreh morality and the fact that Bochrim and married guys watch this stuff is proof-positive. Ever hear of self-policing? Is Mussar only for those turgid prose hyper-ventilating F-Art Scroll books, Yated, and Hamodia. BTW, speaking of bans; Rav Ovadiah has given the green light for Shwekey to concert on Chol Hamoed. Yidden darfen zine B'Simcha!

3. Rav Elyashev, Shlita: It is well known that he is unfortunately fed mis-information by his close advisors and hanger-ons.

However one may view that approach to Mah Nishtana, looking around we certainly see that much of modern Jewish society indeed exhibits such spiritually debilitating symptoms. Arguments, which should be principled, are all too often personal. “Keeping up with the Cohens” has become a way of life for many. Pleasure-seeking is often a consuming passion. And pride is commonly taken in petty, temporal things instead of meaningful ones.

I heard Rabbi Metzger on the radio (Channel two) Thursday am and he was asked why the haredi press didn't report about the child abuse cases. He said three things: 1) The abuse is a Baal teshuva phenomenon.

2) Anyone growing up with a haredi education wouldn't beat their children, among other reasons because they don't call their teachers by their first names.

3) The charedi press doesn't consider these BTs charedim so they feel no need to report about it. Metzger is a PRICK. The man stands accused of fraud, of extortion, of sexual harassment of both females and males – in fact, a panel of senior Rabbinut judges in effect found him guilty of all this before haredim led by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv brokered Metzger's "election" as chief rabbi.

Yet BTs, Jews who became Orthodox at some point after childhood, are the only child abusers in Orthodoxy?

Metzger should be run out of the Rabbinut, run out of Israel and run out of Judaism.

And so should the evil man who made this incompetent, bigoted boob "chief rabbi.

Tendler-Like Teacher Says He Only Pursued Students After School!

World's Greatest Criminal Mugshots!

If Your Child Gets Raped - Go First To Your Rabbi - די באַסטערדז!

For My Israeli Readers! צפייה ביקורתית של יהדות אורתודוקסית

CLICK!

Mazel Tov - Rabbi Hershel Schachter!

CLICK ABOVE PHOTO! Rabbi Moshe Feinstein states the very marriage of a gentile woman to a non observant Jew, is equivalent to an open declaration that she will not observe the precepts. This is so, because it is highly unlikely that the gentile member of such a union, will be more committed to Judaism than her remiss Jewish husband (certainly when they are living together prior to their marriage). Unlike mental or tacit negations, explains Rav Feinstein, open declarations do invalidate conversions. When such cases appear before a rabbinical court, its members actually become witnesses to an acceptance declaration that is not sincere. Therefore, it is no longer a tacit insincerity, but rather an obvious one. As such, they are forbidden to sanction the conversion. Regardless of what this Jewish court may declare, the conversion is invalid and the person is not deemed a member of the Jewish nation. In Iggros Moshe, Letters of Moshe (Yoreh De’ah, no. 157), he writes that “According to the Law, it is certain that one who converts for the sake of marriage, does not intend to keep the commandments, and is not a proselyte at all.”

The Tendler Disease in the News - Again!

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Child Molestor is Castrated in Plea Deal!

CLICK ON CUT 'EM OFF TENDLER!

We Are In A Time When The Sheep May No Longer Trust The Shepherds!

CLICK!

Tendler Country - Ex - High School Principal Gets 8 Years For Molesting Students!

New Square Appoints Vaad To Deal With Sexual Abuse!

Lakewood Kollel Opens In Senegal!

Scandals Tests Trust in Leadership!

Rabbi Matt Salomon Offers The Pope His Help!

CLICK ON PHOTO!

Oy! Does He Have A Headache!

CLICK ON YOSEL!

Child Abuse - Chipping Away At The Wall Of Silence!

CLICK ON BRIDGE - FOR SALE AT THE AGUDATH ISRAEL!

Rav Yosef Blau Shlita

***CLICK ON PHOTO!*** "Batei Din in our times are not effective in dealing with criminal behavior. Lacking the investigative arm of the police and having restrictive standards of testimony they can not establish guilt. When the culprit is charismatic, he can often get protégés who feel indebted to him to lie to the Beis Din. It takes years before those who have been abused as youngsters to openly face their abuser."

Kolko's Office Sign - Auctioned On eBay!

I'm a bit concerned about Ehud - he can't seem to keep his hands off of me!

Ehud asked me to pardon him!

Looks like George has been hangin' with Bill Clinton!

I look into your eyes --- and I see a rotten crook!

Did you hear the one about the rabbi & the priest? Rabbi Kolko penetrated the priest (oh father)...